1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to electrical connectors and, more particularly, to a land grid array (LGA) socket to provide electrical connection between an LGA package and an electrical substrate, such as a printed circuit board (PCB).
2. Background of the Invention
Various types of conventional electrical connectors for attaching IC packages are known. Each of the IC packages has a large number of contacts arranged in an array of rows and columns. The IC packages are generally classified as pin grid array (PGA) packages, ball grid array (BGA) packages, or land grid array (LGA) packages, depending on shapes of an electric contact portion of the contacts.
Because of the widely used LGA packages, many LGA sockets have been developed to electrically connect the contacts of the IC packages with terminals of the corresponding LGA sockets. A typical LGA socket includes a socket body, in a rectangular shape, and a plurality of electrical terminals assembled on the socket body. A set of retention members is provided to retain the IC package in the socket body so as to establish electrical connection therebetween. To comply with the rectangular socket body, some of the retention members, such as a cover member or a reinforcing plate, are required to have a generally rectangular hollow frame. The hollow frame is provided with a large central rectangular through-hole, which is adapted for receiving the socket body therein.
However, in manufacturing, an abundant of material may be often removed and thereby wasted, because each of these rectangular members is formed by punching of a sheet of metal into the central through-hole frame. This will directly result in much more additional costs to the overall manufacturing of the LGA socket.
In view of the above, it is desired to provide a new LGA socket which overcomes the above-mentioned disadvantages.